B.C. addictions minister to probe overdose death of Oak Bay teen

Elliot Eurchuk poses in this undated family handout photo. The parents of a Victoria teen who died from an accidental overdose yesterday say they felt trapped by a medical system that didn't give them access to their son's painkiller use. Sixteen-year-old Elliot Eurchuk at his home after taking street drugs his parents believe he was using to help him sleep. His parents Rachel Staples and Brock Eurchuck say his drug use started after he was prescribed opioids for four surgical procedures in the last year. HO / THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA — B.C. Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy says she will look into claims of a grieving Oak Bay couple who say a “perverse” provincial law blocked them from vital information about their son’s drug use and his medical treatment plan.

“That is something I will be looking into,” said Darcy.

“We will certainly be following up on that and that’s part of what Island Health will be looking into and I certainly plan to reach out to the family — not to intrude on their grief but to learn from their wisdom.”

Elliot Eurchuk, 16, died in his Oak Bay home early Friday morning after taking street drugs his parents believe he was using to help him sleep.

Rachel Staples and Brock Eurchuk say their son’s drug use started after he was prescribed opioids for four surgical procedures last year, the results of sports-related injuries and complications.

Then on Feb. 9, during a day-pass from Victoria General Hospital where he was recovering from a life-threatening infection, Elliot returned to hospital where he overdosed.

His parents demanded to know what drugs he had ingested and what his medical treatment plan was. Instead they were told the hospital must uphold their son’s legal right to withhold that information.

“It’s a perversion of what is right; what is common-sense right,” Eurchuk said.

Eurchuk does not hold any individual minister or doctor fully to blame but points instead to a flawed system.

Staples said there are instances where a child may need confidentiality — accessing birth control, for instance — but that it is inconceivable to allow a child exhibiting or involved in at-risk behaviour to direct their own care and keep vital medical information from involved parents.

Health Minister Adrian Dix oversees a hospital system that allows children to manage and dictate their own care and shut out parents who are trying to do their best for their children while legally responsible for them, said Eurchuk.

“The agency he’s responsible for, the hospitals he’s responsible for, and the parameters that health care workers are required to work within with regards to 16-year old children having the authority to block their parents from having their medical information — that can relate to their welfare — is simply wrong,” said Eurchuk, “and whatever rationale they have for those regulations to be in place is a perversion of reason and responsibility.”

Island Health said that similar to the B.C. Coroners Service, the health authority will conduct a review of the care Elliot received when he was at Island Health facilities.

“I understand that Island Health will be conducting a review of the care that Elliot received in their facilities to determine what changes could be made,” said Darcy.

Island Health said it could not speak to provincial laws.

The B.C. Infants Act says children under 19 may consent to medical treatment under certain conditions: the child understands the potential risks and benefits, and the health-care provider is sure the treatment is in the child’s best interest.

Elliot, who was attending Mount Douglas Secondary School in Saanich and Oak Bay High School before that, had two surgeries on a jaw, which he broke in a soccer match, and two shoulder reconstructions from a separate sports injury.

Years of injury and post-operative pain treated with prescribed opioids led their son’s use of pharmaceutical-like street drugs.

Judy Darcy, B.C. minister of mental health and addictions, says she plans to speak to the family of Oak Bay teen Elliot Eurchuk to learn about the barriers they faced in trying to help their son.DARRYL DYCK /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Darcy acknowledged the couple’s “courageous” act in speaking out so soon after “an unimaginable tragedy.”

“I think everybody who has heard Elliot’s story has been struck by their strength and their commitment to ensuring no other family has to suffer such a devastating loss which is quite remarkable,” said Darcy.

“And for our ministry’s part we will continue to get the message out there about both the lack of safety of the drugs — the poisoned drugs on the street — that this can happen to anybody’s family, and that we’re going to continue to escalate our response in every way we possibly can to save lives,” said Darcy.

Island Health issued the reminder on the weekend: “Don’t use alone, have a naloxone kit and be trained to use it.”

For other parents worried about what to take from this tragedy, Eurchuk, grief stricken and fatigued, tried to impart that drug-awareness messaging to kids must be unequivocal and factual — not manipulative, coercive or exaggerated.

“When a person buys drugs on the streets they don’t know what they are buying,” said Eurchuk. “Counsellors say that, doctors say that, parents say that, adults say that and kids don’t listen to it or believe it is accurate.

“Somehow adolescent kids need to understand and be schooled that that is a statement of fact,” said Eurchuk.

Exaggerations that drinking under 19 will see a youth arrested, or that trying marijuana once will instantly lead to a heroin addiction are unhelpful and in the worst case detract from important factual information that children need.

“The other thing that needs to be drilled into kids, they have to repeat it to themselves: Don’t use drugs alone. Don’t experiment with drugs alone. You can’t know what it is and you don’t know how you’ll react to it.”

Throughout Elliot’s years of excruciating pain from serious injuries and post-operative recovery and finally a life-threatening infection, he grew knowledgeable about painkillers and how to self medicate to sleep.

“At this point standing where I am now I wish he wasn’t that smart,” said Eurchuk.

“He knew so much about chemistry and was so schooled in these drugs he fooled himself that he could manage this,” said his father.

“He thought he had his own back. ‘It’s not going to happen to me.’ And it happened.”

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